About 41 miles of the Appalachian Trail's 2,175 miles are in Maryland. There used to be a day long through hike where you did the entire 41 miles in one day, but that seems to have disappeared. On Saturday, they held the annual JFK 50 miler, where people run much of the Maryland AT and the winner finished in less than 6 hours. You could hike it all in two intense days or three normal days, or you can take the leisurely approach and attack it slowly - guess which approach Carl and I tend to take? In the past we had done a lot of 7-10 mile segments by taking two cars and leaving one at each end, but to help defeat the terrorists (and not have to buy so much $3/gallon gasoline) we've been doing out and back hikes this year, where a 7 mile hike really means 3.5 miles on the AT and then doubling back. So, it will take 10-12 hikes to do the entire MD section, but what's the hurry? While some people extol the virtues of seeing the same stretch of trail from two different directions, personally, I prefer one-way hikes where you don't double back. But when you are driving 60-80 miles to get to a hike, taking two cars is hard to justify what with the coming ice age and all.
Since last weekend we hiked the section from i-70 south to George Washington Monument State Park, we decided to do the next segment south from there. We started at the scenic Old South Mountain Inn - which, as you see on the left, was slightly less scenic than usual given the dozens of green Port-a-Potties in the parking lot. We figured this had something to do with the JFK 50 miler - sure enough, that is where the runners get on the AT from beautiful downtown Boonsboro. Just south of the start is the Dahlgren Backpack Campground, a popular place for Boy and Girl Scouts to do camping trips. Which meant we ran into tons of bored/tired/dirty little kids were hiking in the opposite direction up the trail as a few harried adults urged them along.
The previous week the leaves had actually popped out in brilliant yellows and reds but gale force winds had knocked most of them onto the ground - the colors left on the trees were definitely muted. About a mile south of the start you reach Fox's Gap and a wide variety of Civil War monuments and signs attempting to explain why everyone ran into each other at this particular spot and started shooting. From there the trail heads downhill a bit, crosses some power lines and goes downhill some more to an AT cabin that is under renovation.
From there it is a nice uphill stretch to the to top of the ridge where there used to be a fire tower but now only a communications tower remains. We stopped at the traditional viewpoint to the southeast, where the faded colors and the gray skies made for a less than spectacular view. This is about the 4 mile point from the Old South Mountain Inn. On a two car hike we would continue to Gathland State Park another 4 miles south, but on an out-n-back this is the turn around point - so we did.
While the temperature was only in the 40s and the skies were gray, I had gotten quite toasty on the climb up and had tied my red hoodie around my waist - and didn't even notice when it fell off. We found it on the way back - it looked like a scene out of the Blair Witch Project. From there it was a pretty straightforward hike back, with the sun occasionally making some headway against the gray clouds. We saw almost no wildlife and I'm still trying to figure out why squirrels and deer are always leaping at my car but so rarely visible in the woods.
Just for grins, I wore my Garmin heart rate monitor chest strap along with the Dick Tracy GPS wrist watch thingy. To the left is a chart of my heart rate vs. the elevation of the hike. You can there is about a 700 foot elevation gain from the start to the highest point, with about a 1.5 mile continuous climb. On the steep parts of the climb, looks like my heart rate was up in the 120s, but probably averaged in the 80s overall. This is not a tough hike in cool weather, but that climb up is a lot tougher in the middle of August.
The Google-ified map of the hike, courtesy of Innersource:
Thru Hikers are still doing Maryland's 41 miles in a day. They call this two different things:
1)The Maryland Challenge
2)The 4 state Challenge
In the 4 state Challenge, hikers start on the Virgina - West Virgina border and hike the few miles in West Virgina then the Maryland miles and end at the Pennsylvania - Maryland border.
I meet quite a few Southbound Thru-hikers doing this in September of this year. They were doing it in about 18 to 19 hours. They were starting around 3 in the morning.
Definately not for me. ;)
Posted by: Dave | 03 December 2007 at 11:47 AM
Thanks, Dave - but I was talking about an organized "Maryland Challenge" that was put on once very 2 years by some hiking club that may no longer exist. I thought it was the Maryland Mountain Club, but that doesn't seem to exist. It was a semi-supported hike, with water and first aid at trailheads. Seems to have disappeared.
Posted by: John P. | 04 December 2007 at 05:53 PM